Amendment to RTI Rules in Karnataka

**karira** · 04-10-2008, 04:10 PM

The Government of Karnataka has issued a amendment to the RTI Rules:

COPY OF THE NOTIFICATION ISSUED BY THE STATE GOVERNMENT IS REPRODUCED BELOW:

GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA

NO.DPAR;14:RTI: 2008 Karnataka Government Secretariat
DPAR (Janaspandana Cell)
3rd Floor. Podium Block, V V Towers
BANGALORE DT.17.3.2008.

NOTIFICATION

In exercise of the Powers conferred by Sub-Section (1) and (2) of Section 27 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 (Central Act 22 of 2005), The Government of Karnataka hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Karnataka Right to Information Rules, 2005, namely:

Title and Commencement: (1) These rules may be called the Karnataka Right to Information (Amendment) Rules, 2008.
(2) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in Official Gazette.

Insertion of new rule 14: In the Karnataka Right to Information Rules, 2005, after rule 13, the following shall be inserted, namely:

“14. Request relate only to single subject matter: A request in writing for information under section 6 of the Act shall relate to one subject matter and it shall not ordinarily exceed one hundred and fifty words. If an applicant wishes to seek information on more than one subject matter, he shall make separate applications;

Provided that in case, the request made relates to more than one subject matter, the Public Information Officer may respond to the request relating to the first subject matter only and may advise the applicant to make separate application for each of the other subject matters.”

By Order and in the name of the
President of India
Sd/-
( B. SHIVARUDRA SWAMY)
Under Secretary to Government, I/C
DPAR (JANASPANDANA CELL –RTI)

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**karira** · 04-10-2008, 04:33 PM

Sponsorer

Important points to be noted are:

1. Single RTI application for a single subject.

(Who will decide if subject is one or more than one ?
More room for ambiguity and more room for arguments between applicant and PIO.
SIC will be unnecessary burdened with more complaints.)

2. Application to be in not more than 150 words.
(Please hone your precis writing skills !)

(This will restrict the number of points on which information can be asked.
Does 150 words include all the mandatory data in the application also...like
address, contact numbers, designation and address of SPIO, date, application fee payment details, etc.... ?)

What new and ingenious ways can one think of to kill the spirit of the RTI Act.

Next we will have RTI rules prescribing the size and type of paper, the colour of the ink, etc...

**karira** · 04-10-2008, 04:39 PM

This is real funny.

Even the Notification for amendment has more than 150 words !

The new Rule 14 is also 100 words.

**karira** · 04-19-2008, 12:04 PM

As reported by Nidhi Sharma in dailypioneer.com on 17 April 2008:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/archives...ves2%5Capr1708

Amendment to Karnataka RTI rules draws flak

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="450"><tbody><tr><td class="news"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="450"><tbody><tr><td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">Want to file an RTI application? If it is to seek information from Karnataka Government or its departments and organisations, brush up on your précis writing skills and get ready to shell out a good amount of dough. The State Government has amended the RTI rules and asked all applicants to draft questions in not more than 150 words.</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" valign="top">
</td> <td align="right" width="210">

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">The notification issued by Karnataka Government's Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms' Janspandana Cell has amended the Karnataka RTI Rules 2005. Through this amendment the Government has also cracked down on the queries of the applicants. Through this amendment it has laid down that the queries in an RTI application would pertain to only one subject. If it is on more than one subject, the public information officer (PIO) would reply to only the first subject and then return the application asking the applicant to apply again to seek information on the remaining subjects.
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">A new Rule 14 has been inserted which reads: "14. Request relate only to single subject matter: A request in writing for information under Section 6 of the Act shall relate to one subject matter and it shall not ordinarily exceed 150 words. If an applicant wishes to seek information on more than one subject matter, he shall make separate applications."
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">The amendment, the only one to be passed during the present President's Rule in Karnataka, has come under a lot of flak from RTI activists, especially for the word limit set. Chief Information Commissioner of the Central Information Commission Wajahat Habibullah said: "If rules are to be amended then they should be placed in public domain because RTI is a public Act."
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">Speaking to The Pioneer from Bangalore, State Chief Information Commissioner KK Misra said: "We do not want to talk about this issue. We do not want to be drawn in any controversy." When asked if the Information Commission was consulted before the rules were drafted, Misra said: "No. It is for the State Government to draft and notify these rules." Misra said that the commission had not taken up the matter with the State Government so far.
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">The amendment has been notified under Section 27 (1) of the RTI Act, which empowers the States to frame rules to facilitate the implementation of RTI. Magsaysay award winner and RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal pointed out: "The State Governments can make rules only to facilitate the Act not to restrict it. While the Act says that a PIO has to assist a person who cannot read and write, the rules have put a word limit. In a way these rules have killed the spirit of the Act.
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">There should have been sufficient public discussion before the rules were amended." Though Habibullah refused to be drawn into the controversy saying it is not his jurisdiction, he echoed similar sentiments when he said: "The rules cannot override the Act."
</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="news" colspan="2" valign="top">
</td></tr></tbody></table>

**karira** · 04-20-2008, 09:28 AM

As reported by Special Correspondent in hindu.com on 20 April 2008:
The Hindu : Front Page : RTI: new rule restricts quantum of information

RTI: new rule restricts quantum of information

It’s an unlawful limitation, says consumer rights activist

BANGALORE: It has come to light that the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) recommended that the State Government amend the Karnataka Right to Information (RTI) Rules 2005 to restrict the quantum of information sought in a single application.

This was discovered by Y.G. Muralidharan, consumer rights activist and founder of Consumer Rights Education and Awareness Trust (CREAT), who evoked the RTI Act only to receive this startling piece of information.

“Having grown in a culture of secrecy, the tendency to find reasons for denying information to the citizens is not surprising. But one never expected that the KIC would advise the Government to take the drastic step of amending the rules, which cuts the roots of citizens’ right to information,” Mr. Muralidharan told The Hindu.

Notification issued

Documents obtained by CREAT revealed that the KIC advised the Karnataka Government to amend the Karnataka RTI Rules 2005 with regard to imposing restrictions on the quantum of information applicants can seek. The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) issued a notification to include this under Rule 14 on March 17 this year.

In December last, the KIC recommended that the Government amend the rules to restrict the number of questions and quantum of information sought in a single application.

Draft approved

Mr. Muralidharan said: “The KIC itself prepared the draft and the DPAR, Law Department, and the Government merely approved it with minor corrections, despite the RTI Under Secretary’s reservations about the State Government’s powers to issue such rules. Rule 14 not only goes against the spirit of the Act but also places restrictions on the citizens. It also gives the Public Information Officer (PIO) the authority to decide what a subject matter is under the Act.”

The amendment

According to the amendment, request for information should relate to one subject and not ordinarily exceed 150 words.

For information on more than one subject, a separate application should be made. Further, in the latter case, the PIO is expected to respond to the request relating to the first subject only and seek separate applications for each of the other subjects.

Mr. Muralidharan said: “The new rule places unlawful limitation on the fundamental right to information derived from the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under Article 19 (1) of the Indian Constitution. The RTI Act itself imposes restrictions under Sections 8 and 9, which alone are valid. By requiring the PIO to deal only with one subject in an application effectively empowers him to reject the remaining requests,” he said.

Other ways

As regards applications that do not have any public interest, Mr. Muralidharan said the RTI Act provides for dealing with such requests in Section 7 (9).

Applicants may be asked to inspect the files, seek more time to provide the documents and so on.

Converting data into electronic form is another measure that could help handle requests for voluminous information, he said.